I have a basic msi setup where I need to install Windows Installer 4.5 with. I'm supporting Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2008... so 3 different binaries for Windows Installer 4.5 are needed.
I created 2 prerequisites files(Windows 2003 and Windows XP)... this works fine. For Windows 2008 however, there seems to be a problem.
The windows installer 4.5 binary for Windows 2008 is a msu file(installed with wusa.exe on windows 2008 and VISTA).
In the prerequisites editor there is no possibility to select the msu file from the dropdown list on the 'Application to Run' tab. It only accepts exe files.
Can someone tell if there is a workaround possible? Do I need to wrap the msu file in a self written exe file or... ???
In InstallShield 2008, yes, you would need to write a wrapper exe. InstallShield 2009 added support which can launch "document" files (in the general sense which includes .msu files) just as if you'd double-clicked them.
So the startfile.exe takes as a commandline the path to the windows installer redistributable and the specific commandline parameters for this redistributable.
I will include the 2 files startfile.exe and the .msu file in the prerequisites editor and give as commandline parameters for startfile.exe 'windowsinstaller45.msu /quiet /norestart'
Will the windowsinstaller.msu file be found as I don't know how the prerequisites editor looks for the file(relative,...?!?)
I think this would work, so yes the idea sounds fine. If there are any problems with the path, you could certainly add support in your exe to look relative to the exe file, perhaps by changing directory to the one containing the exe according to GetModuleFilename. With IS2009 you could also use [ISPREREQDIR]windowsinstaller45.msu in the command line, but you wouldn't need the helper at all.
One more question... the prerequisites file I'm creating should only work on Windows 2008. However, in Installshield 2008, Windows 2008 is not part of the supported OS list. So... I selected 'Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" - 32 bit' but this doesn't seem to trigger the prerequisites editor on a Windows 2008 Server system.
Do I need to define a Custom OS Detection check or how do I need to support Windows 2008 detection?
[*** UPDATE ***] I installed on a testsystem the evaluation version of Installshield 2009 and had a look at the prerequisites file for installing Windows Installer 4.5 on Windows 2008. This prerequisites file seems to be used for Windows VISTA aswell. When I have a look at the conditions tab it says 'Windows VISTA 32-bit' and 'Windows Server 2008 32-bit'!? When you read the text on top it says: 'The following conditions must be met for the prerequisites to run.'
How can a system be Windows VISTA and Windows 2008 together???
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are both version 6.0. In order to distinguish, you need to look at the Product (OS) Type in your OS condition. The Workstation option corresponds to Vista, and the others to Server 2008.
question: when you select a certain prerequisite file that contains an os condition, let's say 'Windows VISTA 32-bit'... are the settings in the greyed out 'Custom' panel used for that prerequisites file?
They are in IS 2010; I don't have IS 2008 handy right now to verify its prerequisite editor behavior. But it should be easy to tell by experimentally changing the selection and looking at whether the disabled fields have changed accordingly.
BTW for other readers: when needing to install a .msu file using InstallShield 2008 prerequisites editor... writing an launch.exe that takes the msu file to install as a commandline parameter and accepts the return codes... will do the job... 😉
zmfcat1 wrote: Christoph, I have the same problem, do you have the launch.exe handy? Can this be posted for other to use.
Attached you find the startfile.exe. Make a prerequisites file that launches this file and use the name of the msu with its commandline parameters as a commandline parameter for this exe. This should do the job :cool:
Define also the return codes in the prerequisites file. The startfile.exe returns the returncodes that comes back from the msu-file.
